Learning occurs when students interact with the material in ways they find useful — whether developing a set of tools to get them through the class, bolstering confidence in their own thinking, or deploying the material to make sense of the world in their own contexts. Borchert’s teaching facilitates this kind of learning through three founding principles : first, every course is both on a specific topic and an introduction to religious studies, to expose as many students as possible to the discipline. Second, students are adults who deserve the according dignity and respect, and as a result (third) they deserve and require agency in their own learning through scenarios and methods they will find useful.
Original courses originate from John’s research include an Honors seminar on embodiment and a Religion course on digital culture.
At Syracuse University, he was invited by the Honors College to lead a seminar on embodiment, modernization, and technology. From the mikvah to Black Lives Matter, veiling to veneration of Cuba’s Virgin of Charity, the course conceptualizes how bodies are excluded or included in certain religious discourse by bringing marginalized scholars into the room with largely first-year students. His “Digital Religion” course aimed at undergraduates with no experience studying either digital media or religion by balancing introductions to the study of religion with case studies in American digital religious practice .
Other courses include a New Testament course focusing on the material culture of the book to understand the contexts and contents of early Christian writing and a Death course that begins with a foundation of ritual theory, allowing the students a certain kind of expertise to approach the embodied practices of death rituals as an entrance to understanding interactions between ideologies and practice.